BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE - ROCKERS IN COURT OVER MASTURBATION CLAIMS

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman MICHAEL 'MOOSE' THOMAS has been called to give evidence in court after telling a music magazine he caught the band's tour manager masturbating. MARK STRICKLAND - responsible for the Welsh band's 2005 tour - is suing British magazine Kerrang after it printed an interview with the band in January 2006. Strickland, 38, claims he was portrayed as a "sexual deviant" and has been subjected to harassment since Thomas was quoted saying, "We caught our tour manager pleasuring himself in Germany two weeks ago. "He was in a dressing room and we just walked in and I knew what he was doing instantly, you can't mistake that sound for anything else. "We called him Stinky for the rest of the tour." Strickland's lawyer WILLIAM MCCORMICK claims his client was seriously defamed by the "false" claims. He told a London court, "It attributed to him conduct which he will say is wholly inconsistent with him properly discharging his professional responsibilities. What's being said is that when he should have been at work, he engaged in activity which was lewd, sexual and, effectively, he could not control his sexual impulses." Lawyers for Kerrang magazine, which plans to call Thomas to give evidence, insists the claims were not defamatory but true - and accuse Strickland of being motivated by money.